‘The demon told me that as you’ve been obedient, I can stay here. But if you return to your old ways, the demon will be back to collect you.’

‘Me? Are you sure? Me?’

‘You,’ said Edith.

The cabinet maker looked from the plum brandy in his hand to the wine on the table. ‘One glass from that bottle before bed?’

‘No,’ said Edith.

The cabinet maker scurried away to his room. She and Misha heard him drag a chair across the floor to bar the door. ‘No demon can get me now,’ he muttered.

Edith said, ‘His mind is going.’

‘There’s nothing dead about you,’ said Misha. ‘Or demon-like.’

‘You didn’t see my hat.’

‘I did. And I heard you play the violin.’

‘I thought my father would have sold all the clothes from my hope box but he hadn’t, so I was able to change.’

‘He missed you,’ said Misha.

‘No.’

‘He did. The butcher treated him badly all winter. He took back everything he’d given him before the wedding – the logs, the food, the wine. He instructed everyone in the village not to lift a hand to help him. The priest preached a sermon about him, about the sickness of excessive drinking and the evil of a father who can’t control his offspring.’

Edith suddenly saw Misha had been bringing food and firewood for her father and knew it was he who had brought her the gifts of rabbits and birds when she’d first found the cabin.

‘You brought him food?’ Misha nodded. ‘Thank you.’

‘I couldn’t do any more for him. I wanted to but whenever I came here some neighbour or other would report me to the elders.’

Edith put out the bread and cheese.

‘Your voice is deeper than I remember,’ he said.

‘And you look sad,’ said Edith. ‘How’s Lena?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve hardly seen her since the day you ran away. The butcher turned Lena’s mother against me. He looked after her and her daughter and in return Lena is forbidden to see me. Our baby will be born soon and I want to be a good father but the butcher told the widow not to waste her daughter on the village idiot.’

‘What does Lena think?’

Misha shrugged. ‘She’s almost a prisoner so I don’t know what Lena believes. I don’t know if she thinks of me at all.’

Edith cut the bread.

‘An avalanche,’ said Misha, ‘the village is isolated and the butcher becomes all-powerful. But he had no power over you. You are a festering wound to his pride – even more so now you’ve come back from the dead.’

Edith poured Misha a glass of wine. ‘Is Demetrius buried in the churchyard?’ she asked.

‘What do you think?’

‘I think his family took him back to the town.’